Sarun Tamrakar and Payal Shakya may not be familiar names to many Australians, but within the Nepali community, many see the Nepal-born couple as charitable volunteers.
“I feel blessed to be living in harmony with our small Nepali community,” says Payal, a former beauty queen of life with her musician husband and young son in Sydney.
Between the pair, 37-year-old Sarun was the first to arrive in Australia in 1999, studying IT at Central Queensland University in Sydney.
Source: Instagram
It was only in 2003 when he got permanent residency and returned to Nepal on holiday, that his musical journey leapt forward.
“It was then, rather than wasting time, we decided with our friends to record an album,” Sarun Tamrakar told .
LISTEN TO
Sarun Tamrakar in conversation with SBS Nepali
SBS Nepali
29/08/201913:12
His band, , released their first album in 2005. They called it ‘’ because everything was done in a great hurry.
And the work paid off.
‘Aaudai Jaadai’, a love song from the album, became an instant hit taking Sarun and The Uglyz to surprise fame.
Sarun became a heartthrob and won the best new artist of the year award, his image splashed in magazines and music shops.
“We had no such expectation. Our goal wasn’t to become famous or anything, we just wanted to play music together.”
“We enjoyed doing that since we were kids,” he says.
As Sarun and his band made their album, millions of people across Nepal also keenly followed Payal Shakya after she won the 2004 Miss Nepal title in a national beauty pageant.
A friendship blossomed between the pair but was cut short after constant media speculation about the relationship. In numerous interviews, Sarun said media coverage started to impact Payal, and so he stayed away from her.
However, the two were drawn back to each other eventually, and they were engaged in 2006. In the peak of her career, Payal gave it all up to be with Sarun and move to Sydney.
Life in Australia
Source: Raj Photography via Facebook
Family and life commitments meant careers in fashion and music took a back seat. Sarun currently works in the insurance industry, and Payal works in telecommunications.
Both have stayed away from media activity, and neither has told their non-Nepali friends or colleagues in Australia about their fame and millions of fans back in Nepal.
Reflecting the challenges faced by other Nepali musicians in Australia, Sarun and his band were finally able to release their second album, ‘’, in 2011, six years after the release of their first album.
“We were neither here nor there”, says Sarun of the title, with fellow band members scattered across many countries.
The Uglyz received the tick of approval from their fans for their second album too.
Devoted to community
After a few years of staying within their Sydney circle of family and friends, Sarun and Payal are now volunteering their time for various projects within the local Nepali community.
Payal became the ambassador for a Nepali children’s charity group based in Sydney.
“If I can motivate and educate people about its cause, then I feel like I have done my part,” she says.
Meanwhile, Sarun led a community organisation called Guthi Australia for two years in 2014 and says his time as the President of the organisation was a life-changing two years.
“I’m more of an introvert, preferring to spend time at home and with my family than going out and so I had no idea about the things that were happening within my community."
Through Guthi Australia, I became aware of a lot of issues within the Nepali community here like suicide and mental health,” says Tamrakar.
To highlight this issue, Sarun has got together with some of his Sydney friends in a band called Kina and released a song titled ‘Jali Khel’.
The earthquake strikes
During Sarun’s term as the President of Guthi Australia, took the lives of almost 9,000 people.
Like other Nepali organisations around the globe, they decided to help the victims of the earthquake.
Sarun was so moved by the earthquake’s impact on the Nepali people and the resilience they showed that he named his newborn son ‘Sahas’ in their honour.
“My son’s name is derived from the experience I had after the earthquake. His name is ‘Sahas’ which translates to ‘courage’.”
Sarun still sings
Sarun and his band, The Uglyz, have also just released a new duet titled ‘Jau na aau’ with a Nepali Idol star, which he says is a sequel from their first hit “Aaudai Jaadai”.
“Fans have been anticipating a new song from us, and their high expectation was also adding some pressure,” he says, noting fans seem happy with the outcome.
Besides occasional jam sessions with his friends, Sarun won’t be doing solo shows for Australian fans anytime soon.
“I need my friends and my band for confidence... It feels better to perform with the band.”
